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The two-phase flow IPTT method for measurement of nonwetting-wetting liquid interfacial areas at higher nonwetting saturations in natural porous media.

ABSTRACT: Interfacial areas between nonwetting-wetting (NW-W) liquids in natural porous media were measured using a modified version of the interfacial partitioning tracer test (IPTT) method that employed simultaneous two-phase flow conditions, which allowed measurement at NW saturations higher than trapped residual saturation. Measurements were conducted over a range of saturations for a well-sorted quartz sand under three wetting scenarios of primary drainage (PD), secondary imbibition (SI), and secondary drainage (SD). Limited sets of experiments were also conducted for a model glass-bead medium and for a soil. The measured interfacial areas were compared to interfacial areas measured using the standard IPTT method for liquid-liquid systems, which employs residual NW saturations. In addition, the theoretical maximum interfacial areas estimated from the measured data are compared to specific solid surface areas measured with the N2/BET method and estimated based on geometrical calculations for smooth spheres. Interfacial areas increase linearly with decreasing water saturation over the range of saturations employed. The maximum interfacial areas determined for the glass beads, which have no surface roughness, are 32±4 and 36±5 cm-1 for PD and SI cycles, respectively. The values are similar to the geometric specific solid surface area (31±2 cm-1) and the N2/BET solid surface area (28±2 cm-1). The maximum interfacial areas are 274±38, 235±27, and 581±160 cm-1 for the sand for PD, SI, and SD cycles, respectively, and ~7625 cm-1 for the soil for PD and SI. The maximum interfacial areas for the sand and soil are significantly larger than the estimated smooth-sphere specific solid surface areas (107±8 cm-1 and 152±8 cm-1, respectively), but much smaller than the N2/BET solid surface area (1387±92 cm-1 and 55224 cm-1, respectively). The NW-W interfacial areas measured with the two-phase flow method compare well to values measured using the standard IPTT method.

SUBMITTER: Zhong H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5614450 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The two-phase flow IPTT method for measurement of nonwetting-wetting liquid interfacial areas at higher nonwetting saturations in natural porous media.

Zhong Hua H Ouni Asma El AE Lin Dan D Wang Bingguo B Brusseau Mark L ML

Water resources research 20160724 7

Interfacial areas between nonwetting-wetting (NW-W) liquids in natural porous media were measured using a modified version of the interfacial partitioning tracer test (IPTT) method that employed simultaneous two-phase flow conditions, which allowed measurement at NW saturations higher than trapped residual saturation. Measurements were conducted over a range of saturations for a well-sorted quartz sand under three wetting scenarios of primary drainage (PD), secondary imbibition (SI), and seconda ...[more]

PMID: 28959079

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Project description:The objective of this work was to determine the methods that produce the most representative measurements and estimations of air-water interfacial area specifically for the retention and transport of PFAS and other interfacially active solutes in unsaturated porous media. Published data sets of air-water interfacial areas obtained with multiple measurement and prediction methods were compared for paired sets of porous media comprising similar median grain diameters, but one with solid-surface roughness (sand) and one without roughness (glass beads). All interfacial areas produced with the multiple diverse methods were coincident for the glass beads, providing validation of the aqueous interfacial tracer-test methods. The results of this and other benchmarking analyses demonstrated that the differences in interfacial areas measured for sands and soil by different methods are not due to errors or artifacts in the methods but rather the result of method-dependent differential contributions of solid-surface roughness. The contributions of roughness to interfacial areas measured by interfacial tracer-test methods were quantified and shown to be consistent with prior theoretical and experiment-based investigations of air-water interface configurations on rough solid surfaces. Three new methods for estimating air-water interfacial areas were developed, one based on the scaling of thermodynamic-determined values and the other two comprising empirical correlations incorporating grain diameter or NBET solid surface area. All three were developed based on measured aqueous interfacial tracer-test data. The three new and three existing estimation methods was tested using independent data sets of PFAS retention and transport. The results showed that the method based on treating air-water interfaces as smooth surfaces as well as the standard thermodynamic method produced inaccurate air-water interfacial areas that failed to reproduce the multiple measured PFAS retention and transport data sets. In contrast, the new estimation methods produced interfacial areas that accurately represented air-water interfacial adsorption of PFAS and associated retention and transport. The measurement and estimation of air-water interfacial areas for field-scale applications is discussed in light of these results.

Dataset Information

The two-phase flow IPTT method for measurement of nonwetting-wetting liquid interfacial areas at higher nonwetting saturations in natural porous media.

Publications

The two-phase flow IPTT method for measurement of nonwetting-wetting liquid interfacial areas at higher nonwetting saturations in natural porous media.

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